Belleville in ‘heart of Pope Leo’ as new bishop gets installed
More than 1,000 people packed the Cathedral of St. Peter to witness the ordination and installation of the Rev. Godfrey Mullen as the 10th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville on Friday.
It was a somewhat rare occurrence. Most new bishops come from outside dioceses. But in March, Pope Leo XIV appointed Mullen, 60, who has served as a parish priest in the Belleville diocese for four years and as its administrator for a year.
In addition, relatively few Benedictine monks, such as Mullen, become bishops in the modern era. He’s part of the Order of St. Benedict, based at a monastery in St. Meinrad, Indiana.
“The final decision of who becomes a bishop anywhere in the world rests with the pope,” Mullen said in an interview earlier this week. “Part of what that says to me is that even though we’re little old Belleville in southern Illinois, we are very much in the heart of Pope Leo.
“I think that’s important for us to recognize that he sat at his desk in Rome, and he decided that I was going to be the bishop of Belleville, and in my mind that tells me something about his care for our church.”
Mullen made brief public comments at the end of the installation, thanking family, friends, teachers, clergy, staff, parishioners and others who have influenced his life and religious development.
“We have good work to do. I love you all, and I look forward to that work,” he told the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation.
McGovern and Gregory attended
Mullen was installed by Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. Mullen is replacing former Bishop Michael McGovern, who became archbishop of Omaha last May after five years in Belleville.
McGovern was among the high-level Catholic clergy who traveled from at least eight states to attend the more-than-two-hour installation, which also was live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Other attendees included Cardinal Wilton Gregory, a former Belleville bishop from 1994 to 2004. He rose to become archbishop of Atlanta and Washington, D.C., before retiring last year at 77.
For the installation, bishops and archbishops wearing formal vestments with miters (tall headdresses) lined up outside and entered the cathedral as part of a procession, after Mullen followed custom by knocking on the massive front door.
The installation was a “ticketed” event for parishioners in the Belleville diocese.
“Every parish received an allocation of tickets based on the size of the parish,” said Dave Wilhelm, editor of The Messenger diocesan newspaper.
Mullen’s personal guests included his sister, a Salem resident, his two brothers, who live in Indiana and South Carolina, and their spouses.
Raised in Illinois, educated in Indiana
Mullen was born in Alton and raised in Salem, where his parents lived until their deaths in recent years. He attended St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, earning a bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degrees in theology and divinity.
Mullen also holds a doctorate in liturgical studies from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He professed vows with the Order of St. Benedict in 1992 and was ordained as a priest two years later.
Mullen served as professor of liturgy at St. Meinrad and rector of St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana, before coming to the Belleville diocese, where he has served as rector of the Cathedral of St. Peter, pastor of Blessed Sacrament and Queen of Peace parishes, vicar general and apostolic administrator.
When a monk becomes a bishop, he switches his obedience from an abbot (order’s superior) to the pope, and his stability from a monastery to a diocese.
“Cardinal (Christophe) Pierre, who is the apostolic nuncio right now, told me to be a man of community, prayer and simplicity, which are really the hallmarks of monastic life,” Mullen said in the interview earlier this week.
“So I think what he was telling me was, ‘Don’t stop being a monk, even though you’re not living in the monastery anymore.’
“To me, that’s kind of exciting because it brings a different flavor of leadership and the pursuit of peace, which is a big value for St. Benedict. Peace not only among our priests and among our people, but becoming a leaven of people for everybody in the world.”
The Belleville diocese consists of 127 parishes in 28 counties in southern Illinois.
Five-day retreat at monastery
Mullen said his preparations for the installation included a five-day retreat at the Benedictine monastery in St. Meinrad after Easter.
“It was an opportunity to pray and, to be perfectly honest, sleep and to focus really on what this is about,” Mullen said. “Pope Leo has been very clear about saying that bishops are shepherds in the same way that Pope Francis said it. We’ve got to be among the sheep.”
Mullen said the fact that he has already spent years in the Belleville diocese and knows all the priests, other staff, lay leaders and parishioners will be an advantage in assuming the role of bishop.
Mullen has never met Pope Leo, but he’s expected to in September, when he travels to Rome for eight days of “bishop school.”
Pope Leo is the first American-born pope. He was raised in the South Chicago suburb of Dolton. He has visited Belleville, according to Mullen.
“He told Archbishop McGovern that he had been at the shrine,” Mullen said, speaking of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.
